Sermon26-29 Mt6 "Prayer in Secret" Guide

Matthew 6:5-8 theme verse Matthew 6:6

The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.

In this twenty fourth Sunday of the year 2026, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. Last week, on the second Sunday of ordinary season after Pentecost, through Hebrews 2, we looked at how we cannot drift away by heeding the Word of God, yet during few weeks, we would like to meditate on several things on the prayer, so, on this third Sunday of Ordinary season after Pentecost, through Matthews 6, we would like to think about what the prayer is and how we have to pray together.

1)    First today’s text comes from the Sermon on the Mount with which you are very familiar.

In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord, in the Beatitudes of 5:3–12, first introduced who a disciple is, I mean, the spiritual characteristics required of people of the Kingdom of God, saying a sequence of virtues such as the poor in spirit, mourning, meekness, a hunger for righteousness, mercy, purity of heart, peacemaking, and persecution for righteousness.

And then, in verses 5:13–16, He addressed the role of the disciple, I mean, disciples are the "salt of the earth" and the "light of the world," emphasizing the social influence and responsibility of the disciples.

And finally, in the long passage of 5:17 through 7:27, He discussed how to live a life characterized by such influence and responsibility. First He began by teaching the principles for reinterpreting the Law 5:17–20, declaring that He came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it and inviting His disciples to pursue an inner righteousness that transcends mere outward observance. Then in the subsequent passage of 5:21–7:27, the Lord reveals the spirit of the Law, by addressing its deeper application through specific examples that He extended the prohibition of murder to the anger toward brothers, and the prohibition of adultery to the lust in mind; And further He refrained from divorce, oaths, and retaliation, and even commanded to love our enemies. And also He instructed His followers to avoid hypocrisy in charity, prayer, and fasting, to store up treasures in heaven, and also to refrain from judgment so that He exhorted to enter through the narrow gate to bear fruit as disciples. So we can know that through these instances, the Lord demanded not merely a change in outward behavior but a transformation of inner motives.

In this structure, He led His disciples’ interest from who a disciple is, to how to influence to the world, and then to how to live for that purpose, in other words, our Lord instructed His disciples from the identity of faith to the concrete practice.

2)    Among this sermon, today’s text is related with one of the teachings on the hypocrisy, first, our Lord exhorted that we should not pray in hypocrisy.

I mean, criticizing the hypocrites who stand and pray in synagogues and at street corners to be seen by others, the Lord declared that they have "already received their reward." This makes sense because they prayed to be seen by people and having succeeded in doing so, they achieved their objective. Yet this message also shows us that prayers seeking human recognition ultimately result in the loss of God’s reward.  Therefore, instead, Jesus instructed to "go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is in secret," promising "your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." This clearly shows us that the One we pray to is God, not people, and also true reward comes from Him.

And then second, the Lord continue to warn against babbling or using meaningless repetition in prayer. I mean, Jesus warned that, "Do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard because of their many words." Through this we can know that the quantity of words does not determine the efficacy of prayer. Rather, by emphasizing that "your Father knows what you need before you ask him," Jesus highlighted that trusting in God’s omniscience is the essence of prayer. Through this word, we can know that after He defined prayer not as a matter of human rhetoric or outward action, but as one of genuine trust and inner honesty, He emphasizes that prayer is an act of revealing one's true needs based on the relationship with God, and that its value lies not in the quantity of words, but in the sincerity of the heart.

3)    So, based on today’s text, we would like to meditate on a few things on prayer.

First, we would like to define what the prayer actually is. In today’s text, the Lord said that prayer is the act of asking God in a spirit of trust for what is truly needed, based on our relationship with God the Father.

In other words, He defines that prayer is an act of faith rooted in our relationship with God, specifically, rooted in the relationship between a father and his child. And then as the Lord describes in the following chapter 7 that God is the One who gives good things to those who ask Him, the very act of prayer presupposes our identity as His children. As such Prayer is not merely a simple petition to God, but an expression of our trust within the relationship between father and His child, and this identity guarantees the foundation and efficacy of our prayers.

4)    With this understanding of prayer in mind, we would like to explore a few key points together.

First, the Lord, forbidding prayers in hypocrisy to be seen by others, instead instructed that “When you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is in secret,” adding that “your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Here, in contrast to hypocrites who “stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners to be seen by others”, this act of praying in a room with closed door represents an attitude opposed to such public displays, by withdrawing from human view into a private space, and also makes it clear that the purpose of prayer is not to seek human praise, but to pursue a private relationship with God.

5)    In that sense, the Lord said, “The Father who is in secret and sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

And this word shows God's omnipresence and omniscience, meaning God is not limited to physical places and is present even in secret room. In other words, because God who can “fill heaven and earth” (Lev. 23:24), there is no secret place, not even the deepest thoughts of our hearts, which can escape from His eyes so that since God knows when we “sit and rise, and our thoughts from afar” (Ps. 139:1-4), our secret prayer can be revealed in the eyes of God and be rewarded by God, even though secret almsgiving, prayer, and fasting cannot be recognized by people since they cannot see it. Therefore, it is said that the believers should focus only on God, not on people.

6)    And then the Lord goes on to say that God “knows all our needs.”

Yet, even though God knows all our needs, the reason why we pray and say our needs to God:

First, in Ezekiel 36:24-38, when God promised that He will brought back the people of Judah, who were eventually taken captive in Babylon, by keeping to sin despite God’s warning, to their homeland, cleansing their sins, giving them a new spirit and a soft heart, and even putting the Spirit of God on them to keep and follow God's laws and also said that the desolate land would be rebuilt and become like the Garden of Eden, He said in verse 37 that “I will let the house of Israel ask Me to do this for them, I mean, to increase their people like a flock.” As such, although God knew what is necessary and best for His people, He said that His people had to pray for this to be done for them. I mean, even though what we receive in prayer is not the result of our zeal or faithfulness in prayer, yet the answer to prayer only comes from His only grace, but we have to pray, as God commanded.

And the second thing we have to think about is that although we focus on getting something through prayer, God wants to communicate with us through prayer and draw us closer to Him and draw Himself closer to us. In that sense, God wants us to pray to God even though He knows all our needs.

And thirdly, prayer helps us realize that the blessings and benefits which we received came from the hand of God. In other words, God can give us what we need even if we do not pray. However, if we do not pray, we could not know whether these things come from God so that we cannot be thankful for them.

7)    By the way, sisters and brothers! Here in this point, we need to think about one more thing about the statement that God is in secret and sees secret things.

What it means is that God, who said in 1 Samuel 16:7, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart,” looks not only at the intention and purpose of prayer hidden deep within us, but also at all of our sins and existence.

We sometimes come before the throne of grace, seeing our miserable existence completely contaminated by our sinful nature, have you ever prayed to God, who looks at our heart in secret? Have you ever prayed in a desperate heart from which you could only groan while asking for God's grace for your needs? Have you ever prayed in such a desperate heart that you could not even make a groaning noise? In that our existence, have you ever met God, who heard our miserable cries in prayer from the bottom of the pit, yet responded to our needs?

8)    That’s why Isaiah 42:3 foretold the Servant of the Lord, He, will not break a bruised reed, nor quench a smoldering wick. And also that’s why Hebrews 4:15–16 says that “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Therefore, I pray that this year, empowered by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, we may all come boldly before the throne of grace to humbly lay our needs before Him so that we could not only receive God’s grace but also enjoy the blessing of intimate fellowship with Him.

Key Questions as Small Group Activity

Q1 Through today’s text, we became to know that pray is the fellowship in which we draw to God and God draw to us. So after reflecting our life and checking whether we are enjoying the fellowship with God in prayer, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Q2 And also, we became to know that prayer also is to meet God in secret so that He knew our thoughts and situation in secret to answer to our pain. So after reflecting our life and checking whether we meet this God in secret, I hope we can share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Love you. Thank you. God bless you.

Prayer Note

Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!

Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or  even during the week )

Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!

Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),

please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized   ).

I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon                                    )

Please help me to live in that (  learned way of life                                                )

I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.